14 DAY TRIAL // Isle of Wight-based Blade Dynamics has some very big plans for the wind energy industry. Long story short, the company has announced plans to build a wind turbine blade that would measure a whopping 80 meters (roughly 262.5 feet) in length.
In a press release issued just yesterday, the company details that is has been working on this initiative, dubbed the Very Long Blade Project since January 2013.
Blade Dynamics says that it has successfully completed the design phase, and that it now wishes to proceed with building a prototype.
Engineers and specialists working with the company expect that it will take them a few months to finish work on the 80-meter blade prototype, and that, by the end of 2014, they will be ready to test its efficiency in real-life conditions.
“Blade Dynamics will now assemble an approximately 80-metre long blade prototype, and will begin static and fatigue tests before the end of 2014,” the company writes in its press release.
What's interesting is that, despite its impressive size, the wind turbine blade that the British company is working on will be lighter than the other models currently available on the market.
Courtesy of its length and fairly low weight, the blade is expected to be very efficient, and thus help wind farms have a greater electricity output.
Electronics and engineering company Siemens is also involved in the company's Very Long Blade Project. Thus, should the prototype blade pass all the tests that the company plans to subject it to with flying colors, it will eventually be fitted on an offshore Siemens turbine.
“After this next phase of further prototype testing, we will consider demonstration of a full rotor on a 6.0 MW turbine,” Henrik Stiesdal, chief technology officer of Siemens Wind Power, explains in a statement.
The Very Long Blade Project is worth some £15.5 million (€18.34 million / $25.25 million). Funding was provided by Energy Technologies Institute in the United Kingdom.